Francisco Rodriguez waved to a friend while entering a meeting with Mark
Whitney, the school's Academic Senate vice president. Rodriguez, who was
chosen unanimously by trustees, has been on the job for two weeks. (Charlie Neuman / Union-Tribune)

+Read Caption

Francisco Rodriguez waved to a friend while entering a meeting with Mark
Whitney, the school's Academic Senate vice president. Rodriguez, who was
chosen unanimously by trustees, has been on the job for two weeks. (Charlie Neuman / Union-Tribune)

NORTH COUNTY 
Francisco Rodriguez embraces his roots as the son of immigrants, and said they are one reason he accepted the presidency of MiraCosta College.

Rodriguez, chosen unanimously by trustees for the Oceanside-based community college, has been on the job for two weeks.

He had been recruited by a search firm while he was president of Cosumnes River College, a community college near Sacramento.

Rodriguez said that after receiving that call, he decided to visit MiraCosta in September without introducing himself to anyone.

It was on that scouting trip that he learned about MiraCosta's Community Learning Center, where adults can earn a high school diploma, study English as a second language or prepare for citizenship.

He saw immigrant faces there pursuing the American dream of a better life and it hit home.

“I really view myself as being in the dream business, helping students realize their dreams,” Rodriguez said in his first interview after settling into his new position.

Rodriguez, 46, hopes to help even more students pursue their goals by adding to MiraCosta's enrollment, which is about 13,000 students. The college has already been seeing an influx of new students, with enrollment up by 14 percent for the spring semester.

“We can, so we should,” he said, referring to the ability of the college to add classes because it is funded through property taxes, rather than state aid, in a relatively affluent area.

He also wants to provide a full “campus life” at the college's San Elijo campus in Encinitas – a request he has heard from students.

The MiraCosta district runs along the coast from Camp Pendleton to Carmel Valley and operates three schools: a main campus in Oceanside; the Community Learning Center, also in Oceanside; and the San Elijo campus.

Rodriguez believes the turmoil that plagued MiraCosta over the past three years is just that: past.

Before he applied for the presidency, he had heard about rifts between various groups on campus and “Palmgate,” an investigation launched in 2006 into the illegal sale of campus palm trees that eventually led to the felony conviction of an administrator.

Turmoil between trustees and a faculty that took sides led the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges to warn MiraCosta in 2007 that it could lose its accreditation unless rifts were resolved and overdue work completed.

Rodriguez said he saw the problems as a challenge, rather than a reason to avoid MiraCosta.

He said he believes the college will have no problem retaining its accreditation and moving beyond old issues.

“I expect the college to emerge even more unified, collegial,” he said.

The college's traditional collegiality began to disintegrate in May 2006, when then-President Victoria Muñoz Richart announced an investigation into the palm sales and other money-handling on campus.

Richart's handling of the probe, the amount of money spent on it, her management style and the eventual departures of three popular administrators all contributed to the tumult.

The full-time faculty voted no confidence in Richart, and in June 2007, trustees voted to give her a settlement worth $1.6 million to resign.

Two interim presidents have handled college business until Rodriguez's arrival.

Rodriguez said he was happy at Cosumnes and was not job-shopping. In fact, he said he had not applied anywhere else in six years.

Here, he had to handle a difficult situation almost immediately.

His second day, Rodriguez held a closed session with the board on a personnel matter involving an instructor whose contract was not renewed.

Brad Byrom, president of the college's Academic Senate, said he was impressed with how Rodriguez handled that delicate task.

For the most part, Byrom said, he believes the faculty is taking a wait-and-see attitude after so much turmoil, but “those of us who have worked with him have a very favorable impression.”

“I know that the leadership of the union finds him a breath of fresh air,” said Kathleen O'Brien, head of the associate faculty union representing part-time teachers. O'Brien said Rodriguez exudes an energy “that the college really needs.”

“I think he's the right person for the college at this time,” she said. “We all do.”

“People are very optimistic and very hopeful,” said Kathy Perkins, president of the Classified Senate, representing nonteaching staff members. “He's very approachable and easy to talk with. He recognizes the role of (the) classified staff. We are the support team.”

He likes to pack as much activity into every day as possible. But, he said, “even though I know that this is a 24/7 job, there are other things that help me maintain a sense of balance.”

Rodriguez enjoys music, especially Latin jazz, and other arts. And family is important. He is married and has two children.

Rodriguez, who was born in San Francisco, is the only son of Mexican immigrants and considers himself “binational.” He still visits relatives in a rural village in Jalisco state.

His mother worked at an industrial laundry in San Francisco, and his father worked at a plant that manufactured cans.